Movie Review: “The Mummy”

It’s always interesting to find yourself going against the grain. On one hand, there’s this weekend’s It Comes at Night
sitting at 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. Then,
there’s the first installment of Universal Pictures’ “Dark Universe”
franchise starter The Mummy, currently at a dismal 17 percent.
Considering Stephen Sommers’s reboot came out 17 years ago, it’s fine
for Universal to try to launch their own Marvel-style universe. And if
Alex Kurtzman’s Mummy is how things are going to kick off — Dracula Untold is no longer canon — then I can’t wait to see where they take their classic monsters from here.

In ancient Egypt, Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) is angry over
losing her place in line to the throne after the birth of her brother.
She quickly dispatches her entire family and attempts to unleash a curse
upon herself, only to be mummified and buried alive before being able
to complete the spell. In present day London, a tomb of knights has been
discovered and taken control of by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe).
Meanwhile, back in Iraq, soldier-of-fortune Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and
his sidekick Chris (Jake Johnson) call in an airstrike to save their
hide, only to discover Ahmanet’s ancient tomb. In swoops Jenny Halsey
(Annabelle Wallis) who uses Nick to get Ahmanet on her way back to
London. Along the way, Chris is turned into a zombie, the cargo plane
crashes, and Nick becomes cursed. Now, everyone must band together to
stop an ancient evil from rising to power, turning herself and Nick into
immortal Gods, unleashing hell upon earth.

Considering how subjective films can be, I hate to say that I honestly had way more fun with The Mummy
than I thought I would. While heavily relying on CGI, I love my
Universal monster movies way too much for it to get in the way. Gleeful
is one word to use as I watched the new Dark Universe begin to unfold.
Oh sure, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde barely resonates — the fight between
him and Nick ends exactly as you’d expect considering this is all
franchise building — but there’s plenty of time for us to get to him
better. Possibly even see how some of his trinkets wound up in his
possession at Prodigium.

Every studio is looking to cash in on the Marvel Cinematic Universe
approach, and so far, no one has been able to play catch up. If anyone
could make it smoother than DC has, it’s Universal. With the Invisible
Man (Johnny Depp), and Frankenstein’s Monster (Javier Bardem) already
cast — and some hairy rumors swirling around Dwayne Johnson as the
Wolfman — it’ll be refreshing for horror fans to get new makeups of
their favorite classics. While some may balk at this new version of The Mummy,
there’s plenty to enjoy. This is summer popcorn entertainment at its
finest. While the zombies could have been a little more enjoyable
without being completely CGI, there’s just something extra fun about
this Mummy surrounding herself with an army of the undead.

The best thing to do is to sit back and let the excess wash over you.
There’s no shame is having a blast at the movies and that’s exactly
what The Mummy sets out to do. In this day and age, it would be
harder to try to do classic versions of these characters, so why not try
to make them more modern? There’s always room for flashbacks, right?
With The Mummy being the first step Universal needed after Dracula’s demise, I can’t wait to see what’s next!